1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microwave oven, and more particularly to an automatic cooking control method for a microwave oven using a data pattern for food in the microwave oven.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a microwave oven cooks food by using microwaves, while the intensity of microwaves is varied in accordance with characteristics of the food to be cooked.
That is, various characteristics of the food in a cooking chamber of the microwave oven such as substance, shape, etc., determines the level of the microwave energy and microwave energy absorption, and the microwave oven performs the cooking operation after analyzing the cooking data about the food which are inputted from a user.
FIG. 1 is a partial cutaway view of a conventional microwave oven. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional microwave oven includes a body 1 formed of a plurality of panels. In the body 1 of the microwave oven, a cooking chamber 2 for cooking the food, and a device chamber 3 for converting an AC power into high voltage, and thus for generating the microwaves are disposed.
The cooking chamber 2 is opened/closed by a door 4, and includes a rotatable tray 5 arranged at a center portion of the cooking chamber 2, onto which the food to be cooked is placed.
Further, in the device chamber 3, various electronic components such as a magnetron MGT for generating the microwaves to be radiated onto the food in the cooking chamber 2, a high voltage transformer HVT, and a high voltage capacitor HVC, etc., are installed. Further, there are provided an air guide 8 for guiding heated air near the magnetron MGT into the cooking chamber 2, and a cooling fan 9 for preventing excessive heat of the electronic components.
On a front side of the device chamber 3, a control panel 7 is formed, having a plurality of function buttons for inputting various cooking conditions and cooking execution commands.
By manipulating the control panel 7, a user inputs various cooking data such as the substance, weight, cooking time of the food on the rotatable tray 5 in the cooking chamber 2 into the microwave oven.
Accordingly, a microcomputer MICOM is employed in the microwave oven to control the general cooking functions of the microwave oven. More specifically, the microcomputer MICOM controls the microwave oven so as to perform the proper cooking function in accordance with the cooking data inputted through the control panel 7.
Meanwhile, when cooking the food on the rotatable tray 5 in the cooking chamber 2 by selecting the corresponding cooking function thereof, the microcomputer MICOM collects the cooking data about the weight or status of the food which are inputted from the user or which are detected by a plurality of sensors in the microwave oven, and performs the proper cooking operation based on the cooking time and cooking method which are prestored in the microwave oven corresponding to the data inputted by the user through the control panel 7 and/or the data collected by the microcomputer MICOM.
As described above, the microwave oven usually memorizes the cooking time and cooking method corresponding to the weight or other data about the cooked foods, and accordingly performs the cooking operation based on the data about the corresponding weight or other corresponding data about the food which are inputted.
For example, when the user selects the cooking function for a popcorn, the user inputs the data as to whether the popcorn is light or weight one. Then, the microcomputer MICOM of the microwave oven performs the proper cooking function in accordance with the weight data inputted through the control panel 7 about the popcorn during the popcorn cooking operation. In addition to the cooking function, there is a defrosting function in which the user selects the defrosting function, and inputs the data as to the substance of the food to defrost, i.e., whether the food to defrost is fish or meat or other substances, and the microwave oven accordingly performs the defrosting operation.
As described above, in the conventional microwave oven, since the user has to input the data about weight or substances of the food every time he/she cooks the food, the user has inconvenience when using the microwave oven. Further, when the user inputs incorrect data about the food, the mal-function occurs, and the precise cooking can not be achieved.
The conventional microwave oven also has an automatic cooking function for automatically cooking the food according to its self-detected data about the weight or the temperature of the food which are detected through a weight sensor or a temperature sensor, for cooking, or defrosting the food.
When employing the sensors, however, the exact data of the food can not be obtained. The weight sensor, for example, detects the total weight of the receptacle holding the food and the food, so that the actual weight of the food itself can not be obtained, and the precise cooking operation can not be achieved. Also, the temperature sensor detects local temperature change of the food, again resulting in improper cooking operation of the microwave oven.
According to the conventional microwave oven, since the microwave oven automatically selects the cooking function by its self-detected weight or status of the food based on the data inputted from the user or detected by the sensor, there is a high possibility of having error in the inputted data, and an improper cooking operation.
Further, since the microwave oven performs the cooking operation simply based on the inputted data as to the weight of other data of the food without considering the actual status of the food, such as dry or wet food, the food exposed to the atmosphere and loses freshness, etc, the proper cooking of the food can not be expected.